Rachael Tinniswood

Only one of the 50 job cuts being made in the UK by DTZ will be from its North West staff, the agency confirmed.

A statement from DTZ said: "Across the North West there has been only one role confirmed as surplus. Consultation is underway to establish the extent to which the person in this post can be redeployed, minimising the need for redundancies."

Following an email sent last week by the UK executive board, in which staff were informed that the firm had entered into a period of consultation with 2.5% of its 2,000 staff nationwide, employees were yesterday informed that around 50 people would be made redundant.

DTZ blamed the measure on the current and forecasted deterioration in the market.

The posts to be cut have been identified but not yet revealed by the firm, which said it hopes to be able to redeploy staff to other parts of the business in order to minimise the number of redundancies.

The move comes following the revelation in April that DTZ had launched a 'mobility' plan, which would see staff being moved to offices in continental Europe, the Middle East, and its valuation department, in a bid to combat the economic downturn.

In March the company's share price was hit when DTZ issued a profit warning, in which it said that its full-year results would be 'significantly below' market expectations.

This will be the second time in a year that DTZ's staff have faced redundancies – around 200 positions were lost after its £48.6m takeover of Donaldsons in July last year.